Goldenwest Telecommunications last week began the demolition of two of its Dell Rapids buildings – the old Dearduff Chevrolet garage at 527 east 4th Street and the former Padre’s Thrift Store building at 513 east 4th Street.

A six-inch bow in the north wall of the Dearduff garage, along with other structural issues, forced Goldenwest officials to choose between restoring it and demolishing it. Renovating it was deemed too costly, said Denny Law, Goldenwest General Manager, and the decision to take it down was made.
“Both buildings had significant structural deficiencies to them, and we had engineering firms and architecture firms come and take a look at both of them,” he said. “Quite frankly, it would have required significantly more to fix them up than what the buildings would ever be worth.”

The Dearduff building came down last week, and the demolition of the Padre’s building was expected to begin Tuesday.

Law said it’s too soon to say what will come of the two lots.

“We’re looking at some plans right now to at least rebuild a portion at some point in time, but before we decide what that’s going to look like, we knew for sure that these buildings had to come down,” he said. “I anticipate that over the course of the winter, we will formalize what our plans are in anticipation of the construction season in 2014. But we haven’t made a final determination that we will build in 2014.”

Knodel Contractors of Freeman last week demolished Goldenwest Telecommunication’s 527 east 4th Street building, formerly Dearduff Chevrolet. The company was slated to take down Goldenwest’s 513 east 4th Street facility, which has sat vacant for the better part of a decade, this week.